


Road to Gold

by sundaystyle



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Aged-Up Yuri Plisetsky, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, I'm Bad At Tagging, Ice Skating, Long-Distance Friendship, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Slow Burn, Yaoi on Ice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 19:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9286847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sundaystyle/pseuds/sundaystyle
Summary: Yuri Plisetsky is the new favorite face of Russian Media and fans. He's the one whole world is paying attention to. Olympic favorite, and only at age 17.Otabek Altın is Kazakhistan's hero. He's extremely famous in his home country. "Dark horse" in terms of how the world sees him. He's a mystery for everyone, a skater that many look up to.They became friends year ago, at Yuri's senior debut. Now as the world watches their career, can they find time to explore what life means other than skating? Or will they even want to?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I am such a bad writer, but I'm also a sucker for athletes. Their life is so focused, so busy and so determined. I think it's admirable. I wanted to write something that focuses on how busy they actually are, with little time to spend. They love what they do, they have fun doing it and they have fun pushing themselves to be better. I wanted to show that thin line separating who they are on the ice and who they are off the ice: and that it's not all that different. It might not be very good but I hope you'll enjoy it regardless.

There are cameras around the rink, the echoing sound of piano from the speakers and the sound of skates brushing or hitting the ice, domineering the general mood inside the room. Yuri Plisetsky, the world champion at age 16, is skating without caring about all the cameras directed at him. The press moved on from their previous hero to the next promising face of Figure Skating's History. Everyone agreed, this kid was going to be someone everyone needed to look out for, he was halfway there.

"This kid, only at age 16, already captivated the audience." The BBC commentator said, watching his free skate. "I'm already a big fan," Rai1 had said, "I can't wait to see him improve and shock us even further. Triple axel- beautiful, and what a difficult entry."

While watching him do an Ina Bauer, Mila glances at the microphone directed at her, asking her about what she thinks about Yuri. She's a silver medalist herself, but she understands the press's infatuation with the younger boy. "He's stubborn." She replies, thinking about her words. "He speaks big, but I think that kind of becomes his motivation as well. By saying he's going to win the gold medal, he's making a promise he can't back from. I admire him for that."

Yakov is less kind about his opinions. "He's too hotheaded." And then he goes on about a story about how the Ice Tiger of Russia insisted about his music choice, the choreography... "Last year, I thought he was the next Victor Nikiforov. Working with him this year, I think if he plays the game right, he can be a bigger personality than him." But the coach makes another face, "He needs to start listening to those with experience though. He needs to focus on perfecting his skating before jumps." If it's a little louder, if it was intended to make Yuri hear it, Yuri pretends to not have heard- and lands a Quadruple Salchow effortlessly as if on purpose. The press is in love.

It's eventually a wrap, and the press thank everyone before they leave. Yuri refused an interview with a cold face, his exact words "I need to practice. If you want to film it, go ahead. I don't have time for questions." They know about the temper of the skater, so no one insists on one, instead rushing back to their studios to montage a news together, reporting on Yuri Plisetsky's New Short Program. 'He's coming back stronger than before'.

It's only when everyone leaves and it's just Yuri, Mila, Georgi and Yakov around the rink. Yakov offers a tovel to Yuri who takes it wordlessly, heavily breathing. Their day goes on as before, with Yakov pointing out what Yuri needs to fix, Mila starting her own rehearsal and Georgi practicing his step sequence.

After this is his ballet class, so Yuri leaves the rink to take a shower and change of clothes. A glance at his phone shows that he'd been practicing for 5 hours and it's not even noon yet. Following the ballet class will be pilates, then running, then hip hop class, then it's back to skating. He also has homework, but he tries not to think about it. He's got that one down, it probably won't even take him an hour or two. Instead he opts to check his Instagram, scrolling down barely even glancing but recognizing the faces anyway.

Mila's posted a selfie with her making a silly face, Yuri doing a Biellmann Spin at the background, and at least 6 cameras filming it. She's captioned it with "Russian press noticed our kitten." and a few emojis with their tongues out. It has 19,620 likes. Yet, he thinks. Once Mila tags him in the picture, he's sure the number will go up higher. And then he'll get tagged in hundreds more of the same picture reposted by his fans. It's fine, he doesn't care anymore, as he scrolls down further. Phichit using his instagram like a food-blogger these days, Chris with a group of friends, a new skater he befriended stretching, a friend from school with a cup of coffee, Otabek...

Oh.

Instead of scrolling through, he checks the date. One day ago... He hates the new algorithm of Instagram, the way that it doesn't allow him see in real time when they get posted. The alternative of catching up with him is borderline stalking and he doesn't want to do that- get into the settings in a way that it alerts him whenever Otabek posts a picture. The man posts, like, once in a year. Maybe less. Still, curious, he clicks on the profile of Otabek and makes sure it's only one picture since the last one got uploaded that he hasn't missed any. There are 6 pictures in total, now, and Yuri's memorized the way the other 5 looks. The first one is Otabek carrying a luggage, looking down at the camera, from the day he got back to Almaty for the first time in many years. Moving his home rink. He looks tired, older, even though it's from 2 years ago.

Then there's one of his silver and gold medal, right before the GPF's last year. Thanking the support of his fans and that he'll do his best in the finals.

There's one of his motorcycle, freshly cleaned. Then words in his own language, Yuri translated it on Google Translate. It says "My motorcycle." He couldn't have rolled his eyes any further. The man needs a lesson in social media management.

A birthday cake, from his birthday. Yuri commented on that one, wishing him a happy birthday. He notices it's also the one with the most likes. Otabek had texted him that Yuri's Angels have been wishing him a happy birthday ever since he commented. It wasn't a complaint, Yuri noticed, just amusement. A mutual understanding at how top-notch his fans were at stalking. He was just glad none of them were attacking his friend.

The fifth one was congratulating him, Yuri himself. It was a repost from some Ice Skating Instagram Page, of Yuri showing his gold medal with a proud smile. Silver went to Yuri Katsuki, who had done a great short program but missed two quads and overrotated a triple axel in his free. Otabek got Bronze, with a personal best. Victor was fourth, much to the shock of media and fans, but not so much among the skaters- the man did take a break, a whole year of it too.

"Congratulations to my good friend Yuri. Both him and Y. Katsuki did great at the World's. Watching them made me realize I need to continue to give my all too. Thank you everyone for your supportive words and good wishes."

Yuri remembered an interview, he watched a month after the banquet and everyone had went back to their home rinks to continue from where they left off.

 

 

> "We're here with Otabek Altın, bronze medalist. 19 year old hero from Kazakhstan. Otabek, first of all, congratulations on winning third place and your personal best score, which was also a season's best. How are you feeling?"
> 
> Otabek responded kindly, "Of course I'm happy, but I'm also upset." He replied, his accent heavy English getting in the way of him fully expressing his feelings. "It fires me to do better next time." He explained after a second. The reporter smiled and asked him what he thought about Yuri Plisetsky's gold winning performance.
> 
> "He's young, he's passionate and I'm really proud of him. He's my friend and I'm really happy for him."
> 
>  

And now the sixth picture on his Instagram stared right back at Yuri, tugging at his heart because he's missed his friend. Sure they catch up, they talk when they get a chance. He sends Otabek pictures or memes of cats, videos of tigers. And Otabek sometimes calls him when they're both free and within wi-fi, 15-20 minutes of talking and catching up. Nothing deep, nothing serious, just talking about skating, laughing and sharing. It feels nice. And now...

The picture is of Otabek, posing. His hair is styled by a stylist- Yuri can tell because of the way it falls over his face. He's wearing a white shirt with first three buttons open, a black leather necklace. He's leaning against a wall, looking 'bored' but his eyes are nervous in a way that only Yuri can tell (he takes pride in this). It takes him a moment to check the caption, which, when he presses 'translate' says that he was interviewed in some local magazine, talking about the upcoming Olympics and his intentions for the year that precede it. 

Yuri, before leaving for his ballet class, makes a mental note to preoder the magazine.


End file.
